The former 'Mighty Eagle' of the company behind 'Angry Birds' has joined a new gaming startup

Peter Vesterbacka. Lightneer Peter Vesterbacka, the former brand ambassador and "Mighty Eagle" of "Angry Birds" developer Rovio, has joined a small gaming startup run by a team of ex-Rovio employees.

Vesterbacka is joining Lightneer, the game development company based in Finland that is building a Pokémon Go-style educational game named "Big Bang Legends."

The executive left Rovio in June after working at the company for six years. He's a well-known name in the game development scene and worked to promote the "Angry Birds" brand.

Now Vesterbacka will perform a similar role for Lightneer. The company says he's joining the company to serve as its "Brand Breaker."

Lightneer has joined the Founders Factory accelerator programme in London, and is part of its edtech cohort. The founders will split their time between the UK and Finland. Rovio cofounder Niklas Hed will sit on the board of Lightneer.

CEO Lauri Järvilehto explained to Business Insider that his company's game aims to teach children the periodic table using characters modelled after different elements. He likened it to the wildly successful game Pokémon Go in its approach to gaming.

"The game experience is comparable to something like Candy Crush Saga or Clash of Clans," he said. "But all the while you learn things like the periodic table or the composition of atoms. The game itself is kind of like Pokémon for particle physics. We're rendering the entire periodic table into cartoon characters."